Still fun, but really needs an upgrade.
From a features stand point Virtua Tennis 2009 is also pretty much the same as the previous installment, Virtua Tennis 3. The World Tour is still here where you take your created player from an obscure amateur to the world's greatest player. During the tour you play singles matches, doubles matches, tournaments and a variety of crazy mini games. One big addition to the World Tour is its own online mode. This is separate form the main online you find at the main menu because this World Tour online mode makes you play as your created character. You can play in online singles and doubles matches or even full tournaments. It's a cool concept and makes the effort in building up your character seem more worth the time.
The main online mode allows you to play as any of the games' many licensed players such as Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. New additions to the roster this year include Britain's number one Andy Murray. As well as the World Tour and online modes, you sill have access to basic single and doubles matches, tournaments, mini games and a page for you to check out your stats. This is the most feature packed edition of Virtua Tennis yet and the online play is lag free and very addictive.
Visually the game is a bit mixed. The licensed players look great and so do the official stadiums, but to be honest it really just looks like Virtua Tennis 3 which had visuals that looked stunning 2 years ago. The created players that you make and that the game generates for the amateur part of the World Tour look absolutely awful. They look dead, creepy and look totally out of place. This wasn't a problem in Virtua Tennis 3 so I don't know what the developers did to it. The rest of the presentation is lousy with cheap sound effects, awful music and there's no commentary either which is a bit of a blow.
Virtua Tennis 2009 is a difficult game to review. It's still got the same addicting gameplay and is arguably one of the best multiplayer games available on the Xbox 360 and PS3 (Wii version not reviewed). On the other hand, it's basically the same as Virtua Tennis 3 with a couple of additions to the World Tour. If you've got Virtua Tennis 3 already or you can find it cheap, then I recommend you pick that one up. But if you're a sucker for annual sport game upgrades no matter how little has changed, and if you like tennis, then by all means give Virtua Tennis 2009 a try.
Visually the game is a bit mixed. The licensed players look great and so do the official stadiums, but to be honest it really just looks like Virtua Tennis 3 which had visuals that looked stunning 2 years ago. The created players that you make and that the game generates for the amateur part of the World Tour look absolutely awful. They look dead, creepy and look totally out of place. This wasn't a problem in Virtua Tennis 3 so I don't know what the developers did to it. The rest of the presentation is lousy with cheap sound effects, awful music and there's no commentary either which is a bit of a blow.
By Tom Acres - Systemlink Blog